


Operation: Birthday

by XOLove47



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Birthday, F/M, Fluff, Jemma Simmons & Skye | Daisy Johnson Friendship, Leo Fitz & Jemma Simmons Friendship, Leo Fitz & Skye | Daisy Johnson Friendship, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 10:33:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7798423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XOLove47/pseuds/XOLove47
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After finding out about Fitz's birthday, Skye makes it her mission to throw him an awesome party-- dragging Jemma along, whether she likes it or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Operation: Birthday

**Author's Note:**

> To celebrate Leo Fitz’s upcoming birthday, Team Engineering decided to create a series of fanworks in honor of everyone’s favorite engineer! We’ll post one a day from now through August 19th. You can find the others over on tumblr!

August 2013

“Psst, Simmons… Where’s Fitz?” Skye stage whispered from entryway to the lab.

Jemma had been going about her business in the lab, working on refining the dendrotoxin, when Skye sidled up to her.

“Fitz is down with Coulson. Apparently, he suspects something is wrong with Lola and he wanted Fitz’s engineering expertise,” Jemma said, with a roll of her eyes. “Sounded like it was going to be a while, though I don’t know what Coulson realistically expects Fitz to do-- he’s not a mechanic. Why? Did you need him for something?”

A smile broke out on the hacker’s face, as she said, “Perfect! No, I was actually hoping catch you alone, so I could talk to you about something. I know Fitz’s birthday coming up next week and--”

Jemma interrupted, “Wait, how do you know it’s his birthday next week? Fitz _never_ willingly brings attention to his birthday, so I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have mentioned it.”

“Well, I may have hacked into the SHIELD employee database and read all of your files. I like to know who I’m working with,” Skye said, with a dismissive hand wave. “But that’s not important. What is important is that we throw Fitz a kickass birthday party.”

“Putting your gross violation of our privacy aside for a moment, Fitz really isn’t into parties, so we keep the celebrations pretty low-key. It’s usually just the two of us,” Jemma explained.

Skye deflated, “Oh. Of course you two do your own thing. You’re Fitzsimmons.”

Jemma appraised the other girl. She was surprised to find that Skye truly looked disappointed. This whole team thing was new for her-- for all of them really, considering they only had a few missions under their belt. She was so used to it being her and Fitz against the world, but within the close quarters of the Bus, she was coming to the realization that was going to have change. If this team was going to work, they all needed to bond and come together.

“Well, I guess since we’ll all probably be on the Bus or a mission anyway, it does make sense to celebrate with the whole team. I suppose, we could throw a small party, assuming--”

Before Jemma could finish her sentence, Skye squealed and grabbed her into a quick embrace. “Oh, this is going to be so great! I’ve never helped plan a friend’s birthday before.”

Jemma’s heart broke a little at that, imagining what the girl’s upbringing must have been like.

But, Skye just barreled on, “I have so many ideas! I was thinking maybe a little karaoke. Oh! Maybe I could convince May to set the Bus down in Japan, so we could get some authentic sushi, if we really wanted to go all out. But I have Pinterest boards with more ideas-- I’ll send them to you.”

“Okay, one, Fitz hates both karaoke and sushi, so that’s out. And, two, I said a small, quiet party. I was thinking more along the lines of a team dinner and movie night.”

With a twinkle in her eye, Skye smiled, “I can make that work.”

* * *

The week leading up to Fitz’s birthday was filled with texts and clandestine visits from Skye for Jemma. It seemed like Skye was trying to cram a lifetime of party planning into one event, so Jemma spent a lot of time reeling some of her more off-the-wall ideas in and making sure what Fitz would want was taken into account. But in the end, Skye’s enthusiasm was infectious and Jemma found herself looking forward to Fitz’s birthday even more than usual.

On the morning of Fitz’s birthday, Jemma crawled out of her bunk just as the sun was peaking out over the clouds. On her way to the Bus’ galley, she passed May coming out of the training room and the pair shared a small smile.

Jemma gathered the ingredients for Fitz’s traditional pancake birthday breakfast and set about preparing it in the small kitchen.

One by one, the team streamed into the kitchen, nosing around Jemma as she stacked the pancakes and fried the bacon. Skye was currently mainlining coffee and giving her puppy ideas from the small kitchenette table.

The final straw was when she had to slap Ward’s hand away as he tried to sneak a piece of bacon. Jemma breathed out in exasperation, “I swear, the lot of you are like vultures circling. If you leave Fitz’s birthday pancakes alone, I’ll make the rest of you some.”

At that moment, Fitz wandered out of the living quarters and said hopefully, “Did somebody say birthday pancakes?”

Jemma locked eyes with Fitz and smiled brightly, “Happy Birthday! And, yes, of course I made you birthday pancakes-- but you better eat them quick, they won’t last long around this lot!”

The rest of the team chorused their birthday wishes, as Fitz ducked his head and mumbled his thanks.

As Fitz sat down to tuck into his breakfast, he asked, “So Simmons, what’s on the birthday agenda this year? I’m sure you have a detailed schedule around here somewhere.”

“Ha ha. See if I make you birthday pancakes next year,” Jemma said sarcastically. “And, unless Agent Coulson wants to give us the day off, I’m afraid we’ll be spending much of the day in the lab working on the Night Night gun.”

Jemma cast an expectant look at Coulson.  
.  
“Sorry, Fitz. Welcome to life in the field,” Coulson shrugged, raising his mug in Fitz’s direction.

“I suspected as much. So, birthday festivities will have to wait until tonight. Which means you’ll have to wait til then to see what’s in store for you, ” Jemma teased, studiously avoiding eye contact with Skye.

Fitz grumbled, “Ridiculous. No bloody say in my own birthday.” Shaking his head, he shoveled a big bite of pancakes into his mouth.

* * *

That afternoon, Jemma heard a ping from her work station. Expecting lab results, she was surprised to see a message from Skye.

**Skye:** Keep the Eagle in his nest for the next hour or so! Need to decorate.

Jemma rolled her eyes as she typed her response.

**Jemma Simmons:** Skye, you work for a top secret organization now-- you know we don’t actually talk like that. And besides, if you were going for covert, the second part would defeat the purpose.

Skye’s response came almost instantaneously.

**Skye:** Whatever :P. Just keep Fitz in the lab and away from the common area.

As if on cue, Fitz wandered over to her workstation. She was barely able to pull up another window on her desktop to hide Skye’s message before he reached her.

“Just about done?” he asked. “I just have a simulation running and it is my birthday, so what do say we duck out early and get to whatever surprise you have planned?”

“What? No!” Jemma said, a little too forcefully. “What I mean to say, is that would be irresponsible. And I could use your help… um, finishing up this report.”

Fitz eyed her suspiciously, “Does that really need to be done today?”

Jemma nodded, “I promised Coulson.”

Jemma was able to stall him for another 45 minutes with exceedingly more minute tasks, before Fitz threw up his arms in frustration and declared he was leaving the lab with or without her.

Which is how Jemma found herself ripping off her lab coat and practically chasing after Fitz. When she finally caught up with him, she found him stopped short in the entryway, slacked jawed. Looking at the scene before them, Jemma could see why.

Skye has outdone herself with the decorations. Streamers and balloons were everywhere. In the back of the room, there was a big banner that read “Happy Birthday Fitz!” and Jemma swore she even saw an atom shaped pinata.

In the corner, Skye and Ward were blowing up more balloons, while May was over by the bar, sipping on a beer. Most surprising, though, was Coulson. He was bustling around the kitchen, wearing a “Kiss the Cook” apron over his usual suit.

Simmons let out a giggle at the sight. The sound drew Skye’s attention to the pair and she marched over to them.

“Simmons, you were supposed to keep him distracted for another 15 minutes,” Skye whined. “I wanted to yell surprise!”

Finally finding his voice, Fitz croaked, “You guys did all of this for me?”

Skye gave him a light shove with her shoulder, “Well, yeah. Nobody else on the team is celebrating their birthday today.”

“Dinner’s ready,” Coulson yelled from the kitchen. “Fitz, Simmons told me you liked Italian, so I made my mom’s lasagna and some garlic bread. You’re going to love it.”

“And, after dinner, we’re going to do a movie night. We figured we’d do mini Star Wars marathon, since Jemma said it’s one of your favorites and C-3PO over here has somehow never seen them,” Skye chimed in, before turning and facing Ward to explain. “See, C-3PO is this robot who's obsessed with protocol and--”

“I know who C-3PO is,” Ward interjected. “I just never got the appeal of the movies. Always seemed kind of cheesy to me.”

Five pairs of eyes turned towards Ward in disbelief.

“That’s ridiculous--”

“Blasphemous, is what that is--”

“I may have to rethink your place on the team after this, Ward.”

Ward raised his hands in surrender, “Alright, alright. I don’t see what the big deal is, I already agreed to watch it.”

And with that, the team dug into Coulson’s lasagna, continuing to make fun of Ward all throughout dinner.

* * *

Later that night, after the last of the credits had rolled, Fitz and Simmons got up and stretched their legs. Coulson and May has long since gone to bed, but Skye and Ward both had conked out on the couches. Before heading off to her own bed, Jemma made sure to tuck blankets around them both to make them as comfortable as possible. Giving the common area one last sweep, she noticed a slice of half eaten cake and a few empty beer bottles-- remnants of their celebration that she resolved to clean up in the morning.

Leaning against the entryway to her bunk, she questioned Fitz, “So, have a good birthday? I know it’s usually just the two of us celebrating, so it was a bit different. But it seemed appropriate to invite the whole team considering the tight quarters and Skye was just so excited--”

Fitz cut off Jemma’s rambling, “Yeah, it was great. Sure, it was different, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I had a lot of fun actually-- thank you for planning it.”

“Skye deserves a lot of the credit. Oh, I almost forgot to give you your gift,” Jemma said, reaching for the wrapped present on her bed and handing it to Fitz. “Don’t worry about opening it now.”

“Well, thanks, I’m sure I’ll love it,” Fitz said, waving the thin box in the air. “But you know you don’t have to get me anything. Spending my birthday with you is enough of present.”

Jemma felt the color rising to her cheeks, so she deflected, “Well if you _really_ feel that way, I can take the gift back.”

Fitz hugged the gift close to him, “Uh-uh. No takebacks.”

“That’s what I thought,” Jemma teased. “Anyway, I like getting you presents. Though you are a rather difficult person to shop for. I think you’ll like this one though.”

Jemma yawned, “Well, I’m knackered. See you in the morning?”

Jemma embraced her best friend and wished him a happy birthday one last time, before pressing a quick peck on his cheek and heading to bed.

She turned so quickly that she missed the slightly dazed expression that was left on the birthday boy’s face, as he mumbled into the darkness, “See you in the morning.”

**Author's Note:**

> Want to squeal about Fitzsimmons with me on tumblr? You can find me at accio-the-force!


End file.
